Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Research Background
The study of localizers has a long history, which can date back to 1922. Butwhen it first appeared, it did not attract the attention of scholars. Until 1983, itsappearance in Ma Shi Wen Tong had brought it into the view of scholars. Since thenlocalizers have gradually become the focus of research. Localizers as a unique part ofspeech in Chinese, which are similar to some spatial prepositions in English, but theyare not identical. So there are many difficulties for English speakers in learningChinese localizers. With the increasing number of foreign Chinese learners, theimportance of research on localizers is self-evident.
In the last few decades, many studies have been done on localizers. Most studiesfocus on the ontology of localizers (Emst 1988; Zhang 1996; Li 2009). Theontological studies of localizers mainly involve four aspects. The first one is aboutwhich word class the localizers belong to. Scholars hold different opinions on thisaspect. Ma (1983) and Jin (1983) believe localizer belongs to adjective. While manyscholars (Chen 1922; Li 2007; Xing 2011) classify localizers as subcategory of nouns.Some scholars like Lv (1990), Zhao (1979), Ying (2012) classify localizers as aseparate category. The second one is about the semantic features of localizers.According to Liu et al. (2019) localizers can be pided into basic meaning andextended meaning. The third one is about the looming mechanism of localizers. Thelast one is about the cognitive interpretation and reference system of localizers. Somescholars (Liao 1989) have made outstanding contributions in this aspect.
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1.2 Research Objectives
This study conducts a combination of qualitative and quantitative method toanalyze localizers in the writing of English learners of Chinese. It attempts to explorewhat features they have during the period of using localizers and what causes thesefeatures. In order to achieve these aims, this study designs the following twoobjectives.
The first aim is to find out the features in the lexical level and grammatical levelthat the learners have when using Chinese localizers. By doing so, it is easy to pointout which part learners can grasp easily and which part learners cannot acquiresuccessfully. The second aim is to explore the factors that influence the acquisition ofChinese localizers with the guidance of conceptual transfer.
In order to achieve the goals, this study employs HSK Dynamic CompositionCorpus to find out what features the learners have. The Modern Chinese Corpus ofNational Modern Language Commission is used as a standard of reference. AlthoughHSK Dynamic Composition Corpus includes the writings of learners who are fromdifferent countries, this study only focuses on the learners whose official language areEnglish. In the following, the research object of this study, namely English learners ofChinese, will be briefly referred to as learners.
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Chapter Two Literature Review
2.1 Definitions and Classifications of Chinese Localizers
As many definitions and classifications of Chinese localizers have been putforward, it is necessary to make a discussion about them. After the discussion, thedefinition and classification used in this thesis are to be mentioned.
2.1.1 Definitions of Chinese Localizers
Chinese Localizer is a common phenomenon in Chinese. It is an important partin second language acquisition. Before going about investigating the L2 acquisition ofChinese localizes, to give explicit definitions for localizer is quite necessary. Thereare some different definitions of Chinese localizer in the academic field. Ma Shi WenTong (1983) acknowledges that the words like Shang, Xia, Zuo, You, Zhong, Jian,Bian, Ce can replace the role of prepositions, which appear after place names,personal names and times. Liao (1989) believes Chinese localizers are a set of wordsexpressing direction or position, and whether they represent direction or position canbe determined by the relevant words and situations in the context. And the definitiongiven by Lv (1990) is similar to Liao (1989), Lv (1990) mentions that localizers arewords expressing position and direction, such as Shang, Xia, Qian, Hou, Li, Zhong,and some phrases, for example, Shangbian, Xiamian, Litou. In his definition, henotices the phrase like Shangbian, and categorizes this kind of word into localizer.
All the definitions mentioned above are put forward from the perspective ofsemantics. There are also some definitions which are put forward from the perspectiveof grammatical function. For example, Zou (2007) proposes that words attached toother words to indicate direction and position are called localizers. Yang (2019)further explores that in the structure formula, the meaning of localizer Shang becomesmore and more vague.
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2.2 Empirical Studies of Chinese Localizers in SLA
This section makes a review of the studies that have been conducted to Chineselocalizers by foreign students. The review of related literature is organized around twoparts. The first part is studies of monosyllabic localizers (Xiao 2008; Liang & HondaMasao 2015; Hu 2015; Xu 2018) and the second part is previous studies of localizersin circum-construction (Wu & Hong 2015; Feng & Hyun-cheol 2017)
2.2.1 Studies of Monosyllabic Localizers
According to Xiao (2008), monosyllabic localizer is an adhesive compositionand it is generally not used alone. It can be placed before or after nouns, and itscorresponding grammatical component also changes. It can be seen localizer is adifficult point for learners. Many researchers have a strong interest in localizers, andthe previous studies on foreigners’ acquisition of monosyllabic localizers are quiterich. Some studies focus on the acquisition of a certain monosyllabic localizer (Xiao2008; Liang & Honda 2015). Some studies discuss the acquisition of twomonosyllabic localizers with similar or opposite meanings (Hou 2004). Someresearchers explore the acquisition of several monosyllabic localizers. (Chen 1995;Hu & HathaiSae-jia 2015).
Liang and Honda (2015) make an error analysis of the monosyllabic localizer“Li” based on HSK Dynamic Composition Corpus. According to the analysis, theyfind that misuse, omission and redundancy of localizers are the main types of errorswhich Japanese students incline to make. They interpret the errors from theperspective of L1 transfer and overgeneralization of target language.
Lv (2010) does a study to investigate the features of Thai students when they useChinese monosyllabic localizer “Shang”. Through analysis, she finds that in additionto expressing various spatial relations, Chinese localizers also derive a series ofrelated abstract meanings. The consequence that she gets is similar to Zhao (2002),and she believes spatial cognition influences the formation of language.
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3.1 Conceptual Transfer............................................ 15
3.1.1 Development of Conceptual Transfer................................ 15
3.1.2 Some Notions of Conceptual Transfer...................................17
Chapter Four Research Methodology...............................24
4.1 Research Questions......................................... 24
4.2 Corpus Used in this Study...........................................24
4.3 Research Procedures......................................25
Chapter Five Results and Discussion............................................. 27
5.1 Features of Localizers at the Lexical Level...........................................27
5.1.1 Features of “Shang” at the Lexical Level................................28
5.1.2 Features of “Xia” at the Lexical Level....................................31
Chapter Five Results and Discussion
5.1 Features of Localizers at the Lexical Level
Liu et al. (2019) in “Practical Modern Chinese Grammar” points out that“localizers can be pided into simple localizers and compound localizers accordingto their structure”, of which there are 16 simple localizers in total. By searching theHSK Dynamic Composition Corpus, this study calculates the frequency of localizersand the frequency of errors in the corpus, and all the data are shown in Table 5.1.
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Chapter Six Conclusion and Implications
6.1 Major Findings
This study has examined the features of localizers used by learners and thereasons caused the features. The features may be caused by many reasons, but thisstudy mainly focuses on conceptual transfer. According to the analysis of the learnercorpus, the major findings are as follows.
The findings clearly indicate that the frequency of the localizers used by learnersis lower than that of native speakers. To be specific, it can be found that thefrequencies of “Shang” “Xia” “Li” “Zhong” used by learners are lower than that ofnative speakers. The results of this investigation show that there is a significantdifference in the frequency by native speakers and learners, that is to say, the learnershave underused the above-mentioned localizers. According to the difference offrequency, it can be known that Zhong > Li > Xia > Shang. The research has alsoshown that learners tend to make errors in collocation, and the main types of errorsare redundancy and misuse of localizers. For example, learners use “基本下” (jibenxia) instead of “基本上” (basically), use “报纸里” (baozhi li) instead of “报纸上” (inthe paper). According to the error rate, it can be known that Shang > Xia > Li > Zhong,which means “Shang” has the highest number of errors, followed by “Xia” “Li” and“Zhong”.
One of the most significant findings to emerge from this study is that through theinvestigation of the colligation structure, learners are prone to make errors when using“Zai＋Noun＋Localizer”. And the specific types of errors can be summarized intothree categories: lack of the preposition “Zai”, lack of localizers, and misuse oflocalizers. While lack of localizers is the most typical error.
On the whole, it is common for learners to have problems when using localizers,no matter in terms of frequency, collocation or colligation. Learners’ underuse oflocalizers may be caused by two reasons. On the one hand, the conceptual categorysystem of Chinese localizers is not constructed completely, which may cause errorssuch as omission of localizers; on the other hand, the reason is that learners takeavoidance strategies because they are afraid of making mistakes.
reference(omitted)